The Perception of Civil Service and Administration in the Novels of Ahmet Mithat Efendi

Ahmet Mithat Efendi, who discussed the social, cultural and administrative structure of the period through his works, was one of the most prolific writers of his time. Focusing on public education, Ahmet Mithat Efendi wrote about different subjects such as Westernization, social life, education, women’s education, marriage, superstitions, slavery, minorities and he aimed to be didactic through his characters. The stories and novels penned by Ahmet Mithat Efendi addressing the social and political structure, serve thus as a source of information on the society of his time. This paper seeks to analyze the perspective on the administration and civil service system in the novels of Ahmet Mithat Efendi as well as the positive and negative criticisms in these novels; and to provide insights into the social and political structure of the period. To that end, it examines the following works of Ahmet Mithat Efendi that are relevant for the research subject: Felâtun Bey ve Rakım Efendi, Paris'te Bir Türk, Esrâr-ı Cinâyat, Müşahedat and Jön Türk. This paper concludes that civil service was as a respectable profession in the Tanzimat period, that degenerated due to the unsuitability of people in this profession and lack of professional discipline. While Ahmet Mithat Efendi made some criticisms in his works on administration, he nevertheless never extended criticisms to the sultan to include any negative expression on his person.